With all of the excitement surrounding the release of the new trailer for the new Star Trek movie to be called Into Darkness, many have forgotten that a new Star Trek video game has also been in development. Namco Bandai has announced that Star Trek: The Video Game will be arriving on April 26th, 2013 for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. (No word on the possibility of a Wii U version, but sources tell us that currently no Wii U version is in development.)

The latest attempt at a Star Trek video game will be a sci-fi shooter that will follow Kirk and Spock in a brand new story that is said to be set between the last movie that was released in 2009 and the upcoming movie that will arrive in 2013, shortly after the release of the game.

The game is being developed for publisher Namco Bandai by Digital Extremes, best known as of late for being the developer of The Darkness 2. Those that pre-order will be able to get the Elite Officer Pack that will give players access to bonus weapons as well as special uniforms.

The early buzz has been pretty good from what we have seen so far for this Star Trek title. While many of the previous Star Trek video game attempts have met with failure, it does look as if Namco Bandai and developer Digital Extremes might have something with this release. Right now, all we can do is wait and see.

Namco Bandai has announced that PC owners will be getting Ace Combat Assault Horizon at some point during the first quarter of 2013. In addition, Namco Bandai will be making Ace Combat Assault Horizon available for purchase as a digital download on both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 stores.

As for the PC version of Ace Combat Assault Horizon, we don’t know much about the specifics, other than the game will be offered both at retail in a box as well as a digital download from a number of PC digital download providers.

The ratings for the console version of the game were good, but sales were not as good as Namco Bandai might have liked. Still, a PC release of the game should prove to be good for the title if the conversion takes advantage of the special abilities of the PC. No exact release date was announced for the PC version, but the Xbox Live Games on Demand digital download should show up for sale on December 18th, and the PSN store should be seeing it land today for download.

Namco Bandai has trademarked “Tales of Xillia” in both the U.S. and Europe. The move likely signals that the company is planning to bring the PlayStation 3 RPG to both North America and Europe.

The news was seemingly confirmed by Namco Bandai UK marketing man, Lee Kirton, who tweeted that he had plans for an announcement next month; but he didn’t say what the company might be announcing.

Fans have been asking (or maybe begging is a better way of wording it) Namco Bandai to invest in converting Tales of Xillia from Japanese to English for release in North America and Europe. The company has been very quiet about the possibility of doing it, but now it does appear that it will be happening.

If Namco Bandai does release Tales of Xillia for the PlayStation 3 only, this will lend more credence to the talk we have been hearing that the developer is planning to announce an Xbox 360 release of Tales of Vesperia 2, with a PlayStation 3 version to follow at a later date. Of course, our sources claim than no one at Namco Bandai will confirm this as true.

The new upcoming Star Trek title that is under development at Digital Extremes (which just finished Darkness II) will be co-published. The surprising news will see Paramount Pictures team with Namco Bandai to make sure that gamers worldwide will be able to get the title when it is released.

Currently, the game is slated to arrive ahead of the next Star Trek film, of which Paramount has announced a tentative release date of May, 17th 2013. The game itself is due first quarter of 2013, but no one is pinning the release timing down to anything more than it will arrive ahead of the movie.

The new Star Trek title was initially announced last year at E3, but details were vague. We know that the game is a standalone story that continues the Federation adventures of Kirk and Spock as they work as a team to stop an enemy race. The story for the game is being written by Marianne Krawczky (known best for her writing in God of War) in conjunction with Robert Orci and Alex Kurtzman, who are writing and producing the new Star Trek film.

Right now we are hearing that the game will be released for all major home consoles and the PC. We are a bit unsure as to what “major home consoles” means, but sources tell us to expect an Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 version for sure, with a Wii U version likely. It is hard to say if it will be offered for any additional platforms beyond those, according to our sources.

The all new vision for the Ridge Racer franchise, which is called Ridge Racer Unbound, has finally received confirmed release dates from Namco Bandai. The game will be released in North America on March 6th, 2012 and in Europe on March 2nd, 2012. In addition, the game is now confirmed for release on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC platforms.

The release of Unbound represents a radical departure from previous Ridge Racer titles, with the new entry into the franchise being developed by Bugbear Entertainment (which is best known for the FlatOut racing titles). Unbound is said to combine elements from many recently released racing titles to fuse together to very unique racing experience that is much different than what players might be used to seeing.

While the title in various previews does present itself as an arcade racer, it offers driving as well as both vehicle and environmental destruction and physics. Perhaps the most interesting component of the title could be the new City Creator, which allows players to create and build an unlimited amount of tracks and then share these with their friends. This feature alone could be a very winning part of the equation for this title.

The game will feature both a single player as well as online modes for players to hone their racing skills. Namco Bandai has high hopes for this franchise reboot; and they are hopeful that they are able to generate success where other racing titles died trying to find an audience. With the addition of the City Creator, this just might be the silver bullet that sucks players in. We will have to wait and see how this title does, but several analysts we spoke with have high hopes for the title.

The news of a new chapter in the Ridge Racer series was received with a lot of excitement, but now that the cover has been pulled back on Ridge Racer: Unbounded we can see that Namco Bandai has let developer Bugbear chart a new course and direction for the franchise.

The development of Ridge Racer: Unbounded is being apparently closely supervised by Namco Bandai, and it can’t be easy for the publisher. Ridge Racer: Unbounded is not Ridge Racer 8; and, in fact, none of the elements that you associate with Ridge Racer titles are in the game. That means no boost and no drifting, for example. Descriptions of the game are that it is more like Split/Second and influenced by Burnout to perhaps a lesser extent.

The tagline for this game will read “Drive… Destroy… Dominate…” and these “3 Ds” will be the words to live by while enjoying this very accessible racer. The destruction of the environment will affect the outcome races and actually does play a significant role in how you do. Bugbear is excited about Ridge Racer: Unbounded because recently some have complained that titles such as Split/Second and Blur (despite being very well developed) failed to find an audience, which led to sales that were less than stellar.

Optimism is higher now, however, with the recent release of the re-invented Need For Speed Hot Pursuit doing much better than expected, and Shift 2 again selling well. Namco Bandai and Bugbear are very excited about Ridge Racer: Unbounded, which will release for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 sometime in 2012. It is expected that Namco Bandai will firm up the release date once the title gets closer to shipping.

It has been a long time since Namco Bandai released an Ace Combat title. In the case of the Xbox 360, Ace Combat 6, which was released in 2007, was only one of a very slim few flying games for the console. Namco Bandai is planning to crank the series back up again with the release of Ace Combat Assault Horizon.

Beyond hearing that Assault Horizon will be coming next year, we don’t actually know a lot about the release yet. According to the sources we have spoken with, Assault Horizon will be very different in many ways from the previous releases and will feature some new things, including perhaps the piloting of new flying vehicles (for example, the helicopter).

While you will have to wait till next year, the good news is that the company is planning a release for both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Sources tell us that the publisher finally felt the time was right to release a new Ace Combat title; and that is the reason that they have cranked up the franchise again.